The present invention relates to devices for helping to prevent excessive eating and, more particularly, to devices which emit an alarm in response to the increase in the girth of an individual beyond a predetermined limit due to excessive consumption of food.
Obesity has become one of the most pervasive health problems in the United States, affecting over 60 million individuals. Some studies claim that 35% of women, 31% of men, and 25% of children in the United States are considered clinically obese.
An overweight individual may desire weight loss for appearances, but the disease has more serious and far reaching consequences that may lead to life threatening diseases. The health care community has linked to obesity increased risks of high blood pressure leading to hypertension, high levels of blood glucose associated with diabetes, high concentrations of blood cholesterol and triglycerides which are associated with the cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, increased stress on weight-bearing joints leading to arthritis, depression, sleep apnea and gall bladder disease.
Treatment of obese individuals varies widely from self designed diets to professional programs utilizing very low calorie diets, psychological counseling and weekly monitoring. Tens of millions of Americans at any given time are involved in some type of diet plan. Generally, however, many current dieting methods fail. It is believed that high incidence in failed programs results in progressive weight gain. Many believe that solutions to obesity depend on a long term approach of gradual, yet continuous weight loss until desired body weight goals are obtained. These solutions typically include a combination of diet and exercise. In addition to eating the "right" kinds of foods (e.g., low fat foods), weight loss can be effected by reducing the volume of food ingested at each meal.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device which monitors the volume or mass of food consumed at a meal, and which signals that individual when a predetermined amount of food has been consumed.